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INTRODUCTION |
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The "RuSHA Case" is officially designated
United States of America vs. Ulrich Greifelt, et al (Case 8).
"RuSHA" is the German abbreviation of "Rasse - und Siedlungshauptamt Race and
Settlement Main Office), an SS agency which played a very important role in the
case.
The defendants were leading officials of "RuSHA" or of three
other offices or agencies of the SS. These four agencies, all branches of the
Supreme Command of the SS, were the "Staff Main Office of the Reich
Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germanism" (Stabshauptamt des Reichskommissars fuer die Festigung des deuthscen
Volkstums, abbreviated RKFDV); "Office for Repatriation of Ethnic Germans"
(Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, abbreviated VoMi), a subdivision of the RKFDV; the
"Race and Settlement Main Office" (RuSHA); and the "Lebensborn", which was both
a private association (Verein) and a department of the Personal Staff of
Heinrich Himmler, the Supreme or Reich Leader SS. Lebensborn may be roughly
translated "Well of Life". It was founded by the SS before the war to ensure
the support of legitimate and illegitimate children of SS men. It was used
during the war for the selection for Germanization of "racially valuable
children" of foreign nationals.
The defendants were charged with
criminal conduct allegedly arising out of their functions as officials of the
four agencies mentioned. It was alleged that the crimes charged to the
defendants were connected with a systematic program of genocide.* In its
judgment the Tribunal hearing the case declared that these SS organizations
existed "for one primary purpose in effecting the ideology and program of
Hitler, which may be summed up in one phrase The two-fold objective of
weakening and eventually destroying other nations while at the same time
strengthening Germany, territorially and biologically, at the expense of
conquered nations".
The "RuSHA Case" was tried at the Palace of Justice
in Nuernberg before Military Tribunal I. The Tribunal convened 121 times,
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__________ * Since World War II genocide
has become the widely used term to describe the systematic persecution and
elimination of ethnic or religious groups. After the completion of this trial
the General Assembly of the United Nations, by resolution of 9 December 1998,
adopted a convention entitled "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide". 872486 50 41
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